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Phife Dawg dead at 45

A Tribe Called Quest founding member Phife Dawg (Malik Isaac Taylor) has died aged 45.

The family said in a statement that the musician, whose real name was Malik Taylor, died on Tuesday from complications from diabetes.

"Malik was our loving husband, father, brother and friend. We love him dearly. How he impacted all our lives will never be forgotten. His love for music and sports was only surpassed by his love of God and family," the statement said.

The cause of death was not immediately known but the rapper, whose real name was Malik Isaac Taylor, had long suffered from diabetes and had received a kidney transplant in 2008.

Born in 1970, the rapper formed A Tribe Called Quest in the late 1980s in New York with his childhood friend Q-Tip. The group's debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, came out in 1990 and was praised for its jazzy beats and sophisticated rhymes.

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At the age of 19 he contributed the iconic refrain to A Tribe Called Quest's classic "Can I Kick It".

The Low End Theory followed in 1991, yielding the hit single "Scenario," which featured a young Busta Rhymes.

Phife Dawg took part in several more Tribe albums before the group broke up in the wake of 1998's The Love Movement. He released a solo album, Ventilation: Da LP, in 2000.

In 2004, Tribe reunited to play the Rock the Bells festival in Anaheim; the group continued to perform intermittently over the next decade. An acclaimed documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, came out in 2011, directed by Michael Rapaport.

Last fall, Tribe issued a 25th anniversary edition of its debut album and performed on The Tonight Show.

Tributes to Phife Dawg rippled across social media early Wednesday, including a lengthy Instagram post by Questlove of the Roots, in which he recalled hearing "Scenario" for the first time.

"I swear to god THAT was the moment I knew I wanted to make THIS type of music when I grew up," he wrote.

While the song is best known for launching Busta Rhymes' career, Phife's verse is equally well known.

"No holds barred, no time for move faking/ Gots to get the loot so I can bring home the bacon/ Brothers front, they say the Tribe can't flow/ But we've been known to do the impossible like Broadway Joe soSleep if you want NyQuil will help you get your Z's, troop/ But here's the real scoop / I'm all that and then some, short dark and handsome."